Ozzy enjoying her new green

23 January 2018

Matilda Knights

“I’m bowling the best I have for years,” Erin Osborne feels like she’s at her best this season.

After spending the first two WBBL seasons with the Sydney Thunder, Osborne joined the Melbourne Stars as an all-rounder in 2017. With both international and WBBL experience under her belt, Osborne has fit right into her role in the green team.

A well-respected and highly regarded off-spinner, Osborne has over 100 international wickets in both ODI and T20I cricket.

When asked about her move to the Stars from the Thunder, Osborne said that she’s “absolutely loving it,” and that Kristen Beams is doing an amazing job as the new captain.

“Melbourne Stars is such a great club to be apart of and is exceptionally well led by Kristen Beams,” she said.

“I think I’ve probably never played under a captain that shows more belief in her teammates than Beamsy.

“That’s probably allowed me to play with confidence and freedom, and it’s fair to say I’m bowling the best I have for years, I reckon.”

Osborne admitted that although her role in the team is quite a challenging one, she has received plenty of support from teammates and coaches.

“I’m taking the new ball/opening the bowling which I’m loving. I haven’t done a lot of that in previous years, so really enjoying playing that role.

“Being so well backed by Beamsy and also having conversations with David Hemp and Dulip has been really helpful.”

As for her batting, Osborne said she’s enjoying “providing stability in the batting order,” and is happy to be receiving more opportunities at the Stars.

Osborne shows strong leadership both on and off the field, so it was no surprise that she was appointed as step-in skipper for back-to-back games, including the Derby match against the Renegades.

“It was good, I enjoyed it. I was well supported by Georgia Elwiss... Georgia’s sort of in charge of the bowling group which made it easy to have conversations with her and know where our bowlers were at a particular time, so I did enjoy that… but also very happy to hand the reigns back to Beamsy so I can get back on the boundary and roam around.”

When asked about the support Osborne has received from the Melbourne Stars in her first season, she said that it’s been fantastic.

“One of the best teams I’ve been apart of. I think the group gets on really well.

“It’s a really good mix of some world-class international players with some young players coming up… and then you’ve got some of your domestic players. It’s a really good mix of personalities.”

Despite a rough start to the season, Osborne revealed that the Stars remain in high spirits and are treating every match as a learning experience.

“To be honest it hasn’t been the most successful season for us.

“We had a really rough initiation into WBBL|03 I think, facing Sydney Sixers, Sydney Thunder and Perth Scorchers- arguably the three best teams of the competition, was never going to be an easy start to our campaign.

“The disappointing thing is that we’ve gone into positions to win games but we’ve never finished it off,” Osborne admitted.

“For us it’s just a massive learning year and we’ll be better off. I think you learn more when you lose and have those tough games, than if you just cruise through- I’m not sure if you learn much about yourself or your team, you don’t really develop.

Next year, hopefully, we’ll be pushing making finals a little more comfortably.”

Outside of Cricket, Osborne calls Canberra home, and admits she prefers the “relaxing, quiet sort of lifestyle.” She is also a self-confessed coffee fiend, saying she enjoys going out to cafes and testing new coffee places, as well as hitting the roads of Canberra on her much loved road bike.

“I have a road bike that I love getting on and just cruising around Canberra, there’s lots of bike tracks there, which is good.”

As for life after this season of WBBL, Osborne has exciting changes waiting for her back home, including a new job and a new home.

“I’m going back to a new job once Big Bash is finished, I’ll be working in a seniors gym doing strength and balancing programs – I’m really looking forward to that.”

“I built a new house, so just finishing that off, and getting back home to do all the decorating, furnishing and all that sort of stuff is pretty exciting.”

Growing up in the country, Osborne played most sports, including baseball, soccer and rugby union, but cricket was ultimately the one that stuck.

“I played all boys cricket, we had a very talented under 9s team. I grew up with Josh Hazlewood, so we played cricket together from under 9s all the way up to under 16s and then he got a bit too big and so did the other boys, so I had to leave boys cricket and start playing girls cricket when I was 16.”

Osborne also had some advice for younger girls wanting to play cricket, she said to “pick up a bat and ball and go and try it! Pull some of your friends along and give it a go- see if you like it!”